Uploading file - data in Access or Excel is better?

[1980Zara]

For example I am require to refresh the data monthly. Is it better to import and link the data from an excel or access?

[v-yulgu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @1980Zara,

To import data into Power BI desktop, Excel and Access are both supoorted data sources by Power BI. You can refresh data monthly either connecting to Excel and Access. I don't think there existing some outstanding advantages to use excel or access as data source. But if you want to connect to a data source and develop a report directly on service, you should choose Excel. As we are not able to directly import data from Access database to Power BI Online Service.

By the way, to refersh dataset in desktop, you should click the refresh button manually monthly. To set scheduled refresh on service, you may need a data gateway, please refer to this article. Also, schedule refresh doesn't support monthly refresh, there are two supported options: Daily and Weekly.

Best regards,

Yuliana Gu